Classical Recording: A Practical Guide in the Decca Tradition

Classical Recording: A Practical Guide in the Decca Tradition is the authoritative guide to all aspects of recording acoustic classical music, providing detailed descriptions, diagrams, and photographs of fundamental recording techniques such as the Decca Tree, post-production workflow, and the practicalities of working on location.

This updated and revised second edition has expanded sections on critical listening and microphone placement troubleshooting, as well as two new chapters on overdubbing and the audiovisual considerations of filming a classical music performance. The book gives practical advice on the other essential skills involved in successfully producing a classical recording, including: the practicalities of running a recording session on location, the skills needed as producer, working in imperfect surroundings, using artificial reverberation alongside the real thing, dealing with overdubs, working with sound and picture, workflow from session to edit suite, and creating a seamless edited master.

Written by engineers with years of experience working for Decca and Abbey Road Studios and as freelancers, Classical Recording equips the student, the interested amateur, and the practising professional with the required knowledge and confidence to tackle everything from a solo piano to opera.

Caroline Haigh grew up with equal love for music, maths and physics, and combined study of them all on the Tonmeister course at the University of Surrey. She began her career in classical post-production working for Decca during her final year at University, and stayed there for several years before moving to Abbey Road Studios (EMI) in 1996. At both Decca and EMI she gained experience with countless major classical artists and became a sought after and skilful editor, working on several Grammy award winning albums, including ‘Les Troyens’ (Decca - OSM/Dutoit) Best Opera 1995. Having enjoyed giving guest seminars at the University of Surrey during her time at Abbey Road, Caroline was recruited to teach on the Tonmeister course on a permanent basis from 2009–2021 when she taught recording techniques, production/post-production skills and electro-acoustics. She recently rejoined the university as a senior lecturer, and combines her teaching role with freelance work.

John Dunkerley is one of the world’s most highly respected and emulated classical recording engineers. Throughout a long career at Decca and then as a freelancer, his recordings have been renowned for their ravishingly beautiful sound and attention to detail. He has worked with almost all the major artists of the last 40 years, has made over a thousand CDs, and his recordings have earned over 15 Grammy awards. John is one of the last engineers alive to have learnt his craft from the great Kenneth Wilkinson, the inventor of many of the techniques that underpin the classical recording art. John teaches workshops at the University of Surrey, at the Banff Centre, and at the Abbey Road Institute.

Mark Rogers studied on the Tonmeister course at the University of Surrey. He began his career working with John Dunkerley at Decca, and then spent nine years around the corner at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios, where he was the chief technical engineer for Studio One, famous for its orchestral and film score recordings. Here he worked with hundreds of different producers and engineers and gained a unique insight into the huge variety of techniques used in classical recording. In 2000 he moved to a management role at Warner Music, and after four years left to become a freelance recording producer, engineer and musician. Since then he has worked for a wide variety of clients, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and back where he started at Decca, and his recordings have won many accolades, including a Grammy award in 2009. Mark is an associate lecturer at the University of Surrey.